Following an earlier meeting with Rosita Trinca at our offices in Washington, DC (see our previous blog post), Eric Groft and John Knowlton of Oehme, van Sweden travelled to the Trinca home in Greenwich, Connecticut to supervise the replacement of a Douglas Fir tree that blew down during a late spring storm. The tree was replaced with a sculptural Pinus parvifolia with the help of Jeff Jones and crew.

Donovon the gardener, Jeff Jones and Edmundo from Gardens by Jeffery and John Knowlton of OvS at the Trinca Garden

Additional work was completed to update other parts of the garden, including places stone in the woodland garden.

Jeff Jones and Eric Groft selecting granite boulders to be placed in the Woodland garden

While visiting the Trinca home, we were delighted to see how our previous work has withstood the test of time. The “Lotus” fountain, seen below, was originally designed by Jim van Sweden and Eric Groft and featured in their book Gardening with Water. Here is how it looks today…

Lotus Fountain

With our work complete, the Trinca garden is now ready for the autumn season!

The Trinca garden ready for autumn

To see the Trinca garden up close, you can participate in the Garden Conservancy Open Days tour next summer, when OvS Principal Eric Groft will be in the garden to guide the tour and answer questions.

On Monday and Tuesday September 27th and 28th, 2010 Oehme, van Sweden hosted client Rosita Trinca in Annapolis, MD and Washington, DC. OvS Principal Eric Groft and his wife Shelley took Rosita, a native Australian, out for her first taste of Maryland Blue Crabs at Mike’s Waterfront on the South River in Edgewater. Rosita was taught by Groft sons Forest and Avery how to pick and eat the messy crustaceans.

On Tuesday it was into the OvS office in Washington where Rosita lunched with OvS Founder Jim van Sweden, current Principals Eric Groft and Sheila Brady, and John Knowlton and brought them up to date on her two OvS projects in Greenwich, Connecticut and Wantagong Station in Holbrooke, New South Wales, Australia.

The Trinca’s first OvS garden in Greenwich (featured on page 136 of James van Sweden’s book Gardening with Water) recently suffered from the spring and summer storms which brought down a number of large trees. The downed trees are being used as a reason to update the garden, which is now decades old. Photos of the proposed specimen Pinus parvifolia and Pinus flexilis were reviwed and approved for fall planting. A list of spring ephemerals including Trillium, blood root, Mayapple and Hellebores was approved to fill the ground plane in the woodland setting and will be planted in the spring.

All enjoyed the pictures of Wantagong and surrounding dramatic landscape from the entry gates, swimming pool, terraces, retaining walls and potage garden – all designed during a site visit by Jim van Sweden and Eric Groft back in the year 2000.